Environmental Implications of Dynamic Policies on Food Consumption and Waste Handling in the European Union

Abstract

This study will review the environmental implications of dynamic policy objectives and instruments outlined in the European Union 7th Framework Programme (EU-FP7) Project DYNAmic policy MIXes for absolute decoupling of EU resource use from economic growth (DYNAMIX) to address reductions in food consumption, food waste and a change in waste handling systems. The environmental implications of reductions in protein intake, food waste reductions, food waste management and donations are addressed using a life cycle approach to find the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land use and water consumption. Data are provided from the Statistics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT) food balance sheets for the European Union (EU) with a base year of 2010 and life cycle inventory (LCI) data from a meta-study of available GHG, land use and water consumption data for major food products. The implications are reviewed using a number of scenarios for the years 2030 and 2050 assuming policy instruments are fully effective. Results indicate that reductions in animal-based protein consumption significantly reduce environmental impacts, followed thereafter by reductions in food waste (assuming this also reduces food consumption). Despite the positive implications the policy mixes may have for targets for decoupling, they are not enough to meet GHG emissions targets for the EU outlined in the DYNAMIX project, although land and water use have no significant change compared to 2010 levels.

Evaluating the Environmental Consequences of Swedish Food Consumption and Dietary Choices

“…This is comparable to results found in Röös et al [23] and Bryngelsson et al [20] for Sweden and in Martin and Danielsson [21] for Europe, where roughly 20-30% of per capita emissions originate from food production [6]. Reducing GHG emissions was found to be most feasible through scenarios reducing meat consumption.…”

“…Reducing GHG emissions was found to be most feasible through scenarios reducing meat consumption. However, similar to results in Martin and Danielsson [5], these reductions may not be enough to meet European targets for emissions reductions, and technological advances, both in the food chain and in other sectors (e.g., transportation, housing, etc.) will be needed [20].…”

“…Nonetheless, food waste is taken into consideration at all life cycle stages in order to allow for a review of the total amount of food available for consumption. This was because waste at the household level is significant, even before consumption [5,27]. However, the waste handling impacts and methods are not taken into consideration in this study.…”

“…There is therefore potential to address environmental impacts throughout the food chain. Activities related to food production have been found to account for roughly 20-30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; see, e.g., [4][5][6][7].…”

“…Often, emphasis is placed on the impacts associated with European food consumption and the potential climate impacts related to meat consumption, as this has been shown to be a large source of emissions from food consumption [3,[19][20][21]. Recently, a number of studies have focused on the role of dietary choices, the role of farming practices and seasonal availability for reducing environmental impacts [11,15,[22][23][24][25][26].…”